Eye-witness to the Messiah
An Unforgettable Mountain-Top Experience
Matthew 17:1-13
Did you know that a bad memory can be one of the greatest weaknesses in your spiritual life?
It has been for me on at least two occasions, and probably more than I can remember—remember, I have a bad memory!
For instance, just a couple of weeks ago, I found an old piece of paper that amounted to a journal entry from nearly 25 years ago. In it I found a message from God—a thought I was sure came to me from God because it was not part of my own thinking process and was not something I had suspected. Nevertheless, it came as an answer to a direct question I had asked in prayer. It was very relevant to my life then and again now.
And you know what I had written about it? "This is something I'll never ever forget." And yet I had totally forgotten about it until I was reminded by reading this journal entry. And it was very relevant to my life even now.
It not only happened with regard to this, it had previously happened regarding to my supernatural call to ministry 46 years ago. I had not so much forgotten it as disregarded in unbelief, when God had to supernaturally remind me of it about 20 years ago—at a point I desperately needed to remember it.
Sometimes God gives us experiences which He deliberately designs so that we will never forget them. Sometimes we call them mountain-top experiences. I define a mountain-top spiritual experience as an encounter with the manifest presence of God in which God directs you regarding His plan and purpose for your life.
This morning we come to one of those experiences in three of the disciples lives—The Transfiguration of Jesus Christ.
Now I don't know about you, but when I come to a passage like this, I find myself asking the question "Why?" Why did this happen for these disciples, and why did it happen at this point in their lives? Well, I have an answer this morning. I believe it was designed to be an unforgettable mountain-top spiritual experience for these disciples which they would remember when they were in the low-points, or the spiritual and emotional valleys of their lives.
And that's our spiritual lesson this morning. If you've had a mountain-top spiritual experience, remember mountain top experiences to keep following Christ through the deep valleys of life. Or if you haven't had a mountain-top experience, borrow this one from the disciples, and remember it so that you will keep following Christ through those deep valleys anyway.
Now the situation which the disciples faced at this point is critical to understanding what God was doing in their lives at this important juncture in their discipleship. Peter had just made the great confession in Matthew 16—that He was absolutely convinced that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. And Christ had commended him for this statement as he had commended no disciples before then—because this belief is essential to our salvation.
And then, immediately following this, Jesus began to announce the other part of the good news. It was bad news for the disciples when they first heard it. It was that He as the Messiah would suffer and die and be raised again. And not only this, that if they were going to follow Him, they themselves had to be willing to deny themselves and take up their cross to follow Him. In other words, they needed to be willing to lose their lives for Christ's sake in order to save their lives.
This was tough stuff. Peter didn't like what Jesus had said about his own imminent death. I can't imagine the disciples were too excited about the fact that to follow Jesus they had to be willing to give up their own lives, either. And I imagine that these difficult words troubled the disciples, and especially Peter for some time after they were spoken.
So, in light of these challenging predictions about both Jesus' own future and that of his disciples, it's not surprising what happened next—the Mount of Transfiguration—an experience of the manifest presence of God which was perhaps greater and more glorious than any other single experience any of the disciples had ever had with Jesus, an experience that was specifically designed to be absolutely unforgettable.
And as we've read, Jesus took three of his disciples, Peter, James and John, the three that we have now come to know as the inner-circle of His disciples to the summit of a high mountain.. It was these three and these three alone who were invited to come with Jesus as He raised Jairus' daughter from the dead in Mark 5:37. They also were the three who were invited to come closest to Jesus to observe his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane in Mark 14:33. So this is the second of three unique experiences that these three disciples would have of Jesus.
Now, of course, we all ask why just these three. The Bible doesn't say. We can only speculate. Peter, obviously, was the first among equals among the disciples and would give the great sermon on the Day of Pentecost, the birthday of the Church. He personally had made the great confession. So He's a natural choice. James, is not so easy. The main thing I know about him is that He was John's brother, and that he was the first apostle to be martyred, and so he set an example for all the other apostles who would subsequently be killed for their testimony of Jesus. John seems to be a natural choice as well. He was the first to the tomb among the apostles, first to believe in the resurrected Christ, the disciple who would live the longest and would write five books of the New Testament including the Gospel of John and Revelation. In each and every case, it had no doubt to do with God's sovereign plan for their lives, and I suspect, their trustworthiness. As we read, Jesus wanted no one to know about this revelation until after His resurrection, possibly because it could foment more interest in taking Him and forcing Him to be king, as there had already been a movement toward that end.
And so the three accompanied Jesus up a high mountain, and since it was at the northernmost end of Israel, it most likely was somewhere on the very high mountain called Mount Hermon. He took them there six days after He had promised the disciples that there were some standing among them who would not taste death until they had seen the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom. This, I have no doubt, in all three Gospels in which it is found, is the fulfillment of that promise.
So the question which might be asked is how in the world was it possible that the some disciples would see Jesus in His second coming during His first coming? The answer is found by studying the passages which tell of Christ's second coming and His appearance in heaven. Matthew 24:30: "And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power and great glory." And Revelation 1:14-16 tells of John's revelation of the glorified and exalted Jesus Christ: "His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. . . . His face was like the sun shining in its strength."
And so as Jesus brings them to the summit, He is transfigured. His appearance is transformed, changed from that of a mere human being into the glorified Son of God. His face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as light. And there with Him were two of the saints that will return with Him—two very important saints, Moses and Elijah. Some suggest Moses was there because He represented the Law, and Elijah, because He represented the prophets. The Law and the Prophets both testified to Jesus, the Christ. As Zechariah 14:5b had said, "Then the Lord God will come and all the holy ones with Him." And He comes with the clouds and great power and glory. So what the disciples are actually observing is what the Son of Man, the Son of God looks like when He comes in glory, with His glorified body, and the saints at the Second Coming.
Now this no doubt was an amazing, mesmerizing, unforgettable experience for the disciples. This was heaven revealed before the time, a foretaste of glory divine, a guarantee, or earnest that Peter's confession of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God was absolutely true, and that Jesus' promises that He was still coming in His Kingdom, despite His recent predictions of His death were actually going to come to pass. For who could stage this kind of event, who could transform Himself in this way, and bring back two great saints like Moses and Elijah, except God be with Him.
Peter was so blown away that Luke records that he said some things without knowing he was saying them: He says in verse 4, somewhat unconsciously, "Lord it is good for us to be here. If you will, I will make three tabernacles here, one for You, and one for Moses and one for Elijah."
Now Tabernacles were temporary dwelling places, also called booths, which Jews were very familiar with from celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths, commemorating Israel's 40 years in the wilderness. He wanted to be hospitable to the three men; but more than that, he wanted to continue this amazing experience of heaven and was hoping to somehow nail it down by giving these three incredible people a place to stay here on earth.
This was truly an experience they would never forget. In fact, John is likely referring to it when he wrote in John 1:14b "And we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." And Peter clearly describes this experience in I Peter 2:16-18: " For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased”— and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain."
This was an unforgettable experience of the manifest presence of God for a reason. That that these men would never forget this incredible revelation and guarantee that what they had come to know about Jesus Christ was absolutely true.
Because, you see, the ministry and direction of Jesus Christ had taken a turn. Now Jesus was reminding them and preparing them for His death in Jerusalem. As the disciples descended with Jesus from this mountain-top experience they would ultimately descend into the valley of Christ's humiliation and their own great despair.
You know what I've discovered in my own experience? God gives these kinds of mountain-top experiences to be remembered in times of despair--in times when we're tempted to give up.
I have had many experiences of God in my lifetime. But there have been four major, dramatic mountain-top experiences given to me that I indeed will never forget. They were my call to ministry in 1970; there was the word, "My presence shall go with you" and God's face on a cloud in 1996, a sign of healing and a re-affirmation of my call at a very low point in 1997, and then God's affirmation of me and my ministry in 2005. Two of the four times I was in the midst of a very deep valley. These disciples were given this mountain-top unforgettable experience for the specific reason that they needed to remember it in the coming days of suffering and difficulty that they would all experience. And they did remember.
So our first point this morning, Remember the mountain-top experiences when you're in the valley. For some of you it's the moment you really got saved. For others it will be great answers to prayer. For others it will be when God spoke to you through his Word, or perhaps supernaturally and delivered you from despair. If you don't have one, borrow this one from the disciples—Jesus is the Son of the Living God—and He's coming back for you. He proved it when He gave this incredible demonstration to these three reliable apostles.
A second similar lesson is this: Focus on heavenly Glory in the midst of earthly difficulty. Focus on Heavenly glory when you're in the midst of earthly difficulty.
The Second Coming of Christ and the coming Kingdom of God has been called the blessed hope. It is the overarching motivation for living for Jesus Christ, and for enduring the difficulties of this world. As Titus 2:11-13 puts it, "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus"
When the Bible talks about the blessed hope, it's talking about the confident expectation we have of Christ's return and the heavenly glory we will experience when He returns.
It's what educators call the principle of delayed gratification—a principle that not all people learn. You can't have everything you want right now. You need to wait and prepare for some good things. People who have learned to operate by the principle of delayed gratification are willing to take years to get a good education, trusting that it will work out better for them in the end, than if they go get a job right away, because they will be able to make a better living, at least so goes the theory, if they get a better education in the beginning.
So it is with believers. We don't experience heaven here. This is not our home. We're on a journey through this life, and if we learn to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, we will experience the blessings of Christ's Second Coming and His Kingdom when He comes.
And so this another reason for the Transfiguration. These three men uniquely experienced heaven and the heavenly Christ before the time. They experienced that it was good, exceedingly good, so good they didn't want those three men to go. They wanted to continue to experience that glory, and what the presence of Moses and Elijah, alive and well and with God in heaven tells us, is that this indeed will be our experience as well if we live by faith in this life.
That's why we seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness—because it's coming, it's going to be great and it's going to be forever! Amen!
And the third reason the Transfiguration took place at this point was to reassure these three men of an essential reality—that Jesus was indeed who Peter said He was, who He claimed the be, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.
This great confession had just been made by Peter. But as we noted last week, the disciples and the Jews in general had virtually no concept that the Messiah would die and suffer for their sins and be resurrected, even though there were several places, including Daniel 9:26 and Isaiah 52-53 where this was plainly stated. They naturally gravitated to the many more passages that talked about His being a politically deliverer who would rule over the world from His throne in Jerusalem. So all this talk from Jesus about suffering, dying and being raised from the dead was very difficult for them to swallow. And Jesus and the opposition He would face from this time forward would really be challenging this belief that Jesus was really the Messiah, the Son of the Living God—because the scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees, all the official religious leaders of the Jews would emphatically reject this notion by crucifying Jesus.
We have no idea how hard it must have been for these faithful religious Jewish men to blow off their religious authorities—people they had listened for spiritual counsel all their lives. They literally needed to hear from heaven, to hear from God Himself, that indeed this Jesus, who was going to be rejected and killed by the chief priests and the Sanhedrin was indeed the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.
So, God the Father, arranged for that. As Peter is semi-consciously announcing his odd intentions, something even more incredible happens. The cloud representing the shekinah glory of God—the shekinah glory of God in the Old Testament had always represented the manifest presence of God Himself as it entered the tabernacle and temple on the days of their dedication—the shekinah glory of God overshadowed them. Verse 5: "While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!”
It was not a dark cloud. It was a bright cloud, representing the light of the glory of God. As John would later say, God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all." And then, God the Father Himself spoke. It was the very same message that God the Father had spoken before, at the baptism of Jesus. But repetition is the key to learning. The first time, it was the first clue as to whom Jesus really was, the Son of the living God, co-equal with the Father, the God-Man. Now it was the re-affirmation of what Peter had confessed. Look! God speaks, just as He did from Sinai out of the cloud in the Old Testament: "This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." God the Father was testifying, He was once again being a witness to the fact that this man Jesus was no mere faith-healer, miracle-worker or prophet. He was the Son of the Living God.
You better believe it! Why all this emphasis at this point on this point of doctrine? Because it is essential to believe this. It is absolutely essential and non-negotiable for salvation. You can't get to heaven without believing this. You don't believe Jesus is God the Son, then you've got the wrong God. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but through Me!" God the Father is saying in the most dramatic, unforgettable way, don't miss this! This is the absolute truth! Your eternal destiny depends on believing it, no matter what this life brings!
How many more ways does God have to say it? Jesus is His Son, the God-Man. He is the Savior. He saves through faith in His Son's death for our sins and resurrection! Amen!
So be assured that Jesus really is God's Son. Your eternal destiny depends on it!
But the Father adds one more very important instruction to His statement this time. Something not to be ignored. End of verse 5: "Listen to Him!" Listen to Jesus. Obey Him. This is God in the flesh. Listen to Him! Point four: Listen to Jesus!
Now this should have brought another verse to mind for these Jewish boys. Deuteronomy 18:15. These were God's words spoken through Moses, now present with Jesus. And Moses had testified of Jesus in the same way in Deuteronomy 18:15 1500 years earlier: "The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him." And Deuteronomy 18:19: "It shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him."
Wow! Do you listen to Jesus? He is God. God the Father tell us, in essence, if you believe in Jesus, listen to Him. Listen to Him or else. And believe me, you do not want the else! Read the Gospels! Don't just find out what Jesus says! Do what He says! Do you?
These three disciples do. That what they did at this point, anyway.
As the voice from heaven, from the cloud spoke in this incredible moment, all three of them fell prostrate face down on the ground and were terrified. Just as any of us would do, in the presence of Holy God and hearing His awesome voice.
Next thing they know Jesus is gently touching them, encouraging them to get up, and as they lift their eyes, the unforgettable awesome scene of the glorified Jesus, and Moses and Elijah and the shekinah has disappeared, and Jesus, again in familiar form is there alone with them, encouraging them not to be afraid.
Wow! What an unforgettable experience!
As with any unforgettable mountain-top experience with God, when I've experienced them, there's always a time for reflection afterward. And so it as with these three disciples of Jesus.
And they had a question that remained unanswered in their minds which they had been reminded of by the presence of Elijah in the vision. So they asked Jesus about it, in verse 10: "Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first." It was a good question. Apparently the disciples did not have immediate access to the Old Testament—there was no printing press in their days, and the scribes had accurately reported the prophecy that Elijah must come first before the Messiah came, in accord with Malachi 4:5-6.
And so Jesus answered, Elijah is coming and will restore all things; but I say to you that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wished. So also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.” And so the disciples realized that he had been talking to them about John the Baptist. He was indeed the one who had come as his father Zacharias had been told in the spirit and power of Elijah in Luke 1:17, though what John said in John 1:21 was literally true, he was not literally Elijah, he had fulfilled the prophecy in that he had come in the spirit and power of Elijah. But at the same time, Jesus confirmed that Elijah himself must yet come before the Messiah comes again. And so he will. Many believe he will be one of the two prophets spoken of in Israel in Revelation 11.
As with any spiritual experience, it must be evaluated by the Word of God. And that's our final point this morning. Test every spiritual experience obey the Word of God. How does it fit with the truths of God's Word? As I Thessalonians 5:19-22 says, "Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances. But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil."
What an experience! What an experience of God! What a mountain spiritual experience!
Have you had an unforgettable experience with God? God designed it that way for this reason—that you would remember mountain-top experiences to follow Christ thru the deep valleys.
Remember mountain-top experiences to keep following Christ thru the deep valley of life!
Amen! Amen!
